The invention relates to a sun visor for vehicles, and more particularly, to a sun visor which overcomes the difficulties in fulfilling required specifications as to radial play and sliding force between a hollow body and a sliding body disposed within the sun visor.
Sun visors are well known in the art. A sun visor of the generic type is described in DE 41 04 032 C1, which is incorporated herein by reference. Generally, a sun visor has a sun visor body which is pivoted about, and longitudinally displaceable on, a spindle. The spindle is seated in a rotatable, but non-displaceable, manner in a sliding body. The sliding body is mounted in a non-rotatable, but displaceable, manner in a tubular hollow body.
In practical use, the known sun visor has proven to be in need of further improvement. The main improvement needed is to overcome particular difficulties in fulfilling the required specification with respect to radial play and sliding force between the hollow body and the sliding body. In particular, excessive radial play caused by tolerances between the hollow body and the sliding body can easily result in an undesired adjustment of the sun visor body. Trials in keeping the amount of radial play small have shown that, even if tolerances are complied with, the sliding forces cannot reliably be controlled. Often, either the sliding forces were too high (at room temperature) or too low (following heat aging) for customer requirements. This circumstance can probably be attributed to the different coefficients of expansion between the tubular hollow body, which is made of metal, and the sliding body, which is made of plastic.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a sun visor which allows the specification which is required by the customers with respect to radial play and sliding force between the hollow body and the sliding body to be fulfilled under both hot and cold conditions.